[mythtv] Poll: System Requirements

Tue, 19 Nov 2002 11:42:16 -0800 (PST)

This is almost a bit disheartening.

Here's my setup:

Athalon 1200MHz - 512MB SDRAM
80GB Seagate IDE 7200rpm
WinTV dbx 401
SB awe64 isa
Leadtek GeForce2 MX 400
Gentoo 1.4
mythtv 0.7
hdparm test = 17.11 MB/sec (i think this is limited my
my m/b to UDMA66)

Codec=mpeg4
Width=320 
Height=240
AudioSampleRate=32000
DontCompressAudio=1

At these low resolution settings my cpu is practically
idle.  Spikes to around 25%, but is usually in the 10%
range.  Thats for just mythtv playback ... if I set
the resolution higher or start doing recordings at the
same time then the cpu goes much higher.  I can
usually do anything I need at low resolution with less
than 75% cpu.  The rtjpeg codec just makes the quality
worse, but doesn't change the artifact problem.

I still just don't get good quality playback :(
The higher I set the resolution the worse it gets,
however I believe that the problem is with the signal
somehow.  Even when I am using 320x240 I get little
tears in the picture that look like noisy signal.  The
higher the resolution the more noisy it gets.  Xawtv
works, but seems to have artifacts as well, just not
as bad as mythv.  If I raise the resolution to 640x480
w/ mpeg4 then I start to lose frames as my cpu maxes
out, so I know that my cpu is not holding me back at
the lower resolutions.

I have tried altering just about everything I know to
fix this quality problem, but I am still getting
nothing.  I have tried changing the bttv module
paramters to try different tuner types ... but it
doesn't change anything.  I went out and got a
Pinnacle pctv card to try instead, but I can't get it
working.

I'd like to know what bttv options ppl are using for
their Pinnacle cards to get them working.  And any
other advice as to why I am not getting decent quality
video.

--- eric nelson <ericlarsn@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Here's my setup which I just got working:
> 
> - P2 400MHz - 128MB RAM
> - 9GB Seagate IDE 5400rpm
> - AverTV Studio capture card
> - SB Live!
> - ATI Radeon 7500
> - Mandrake 9 w/ default (ALSA) sound drivers
> - mythtv 0.7 release
> 
> Setup Notes:
> 
> - I initially had major prolems with XMLTV, but
> using
> the newer version(the one released last week) fixed
> it, and everything installed w/o problems.
> 
> - At first audio was out of sync.  I muted 'line in'
> from the mixer, and it works great.
> 
> 
> Details:
> 
> - hdparm -tT /dev/hda values:
>  Timing buffer-cache reads:   128 MB in  1.13
> seconds
> =113.27 MB/sec
>  Timing buffered disk r-eads:  64 MB in  4.41
> seconds
> = 14.51 MB/sec
> 
> settings.txt:
> 
> Codec=rtjpeg    
> Height=240
> Width=320
> Quality=255
> LumaFilter=0
> ChromaFilter=0
> AudioSampleRate=44100
> DontCompressAudio=1
> Deinterlace=0 (segfault occurs if this is set to 1)
> 
> everything else is the default setting.  
> 
> I get some choppy video if i set the height and
> width
> to 640x480 and a segfault if I set it to 800x600. 
> 320x200 isn't the best, but it's fine until I get
> the
> gatos ATI tv-out drivers working :).  I'm actually
> surprised that myth performs as well as it does on
> such a crappy system :).   Kudos Isaac!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -Eric
>             
> 
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